MP realises law-degree dream after 30 years

Overseas travel and marriage left Tim Macindoe's legal studies in limbo.Photo / Sarah Ivey

The year 1979 was notable for a number of events.

Reggae singer Bob Marley performed in New Zealand not long before his untimely death.

Air New Zealand flight 901 ended in tragedy when the DC-10 crashed on Mt Erebus, killing all 257 people on board.

In the same year, a young Tim Macindoe began studying law at the University of Auckland.

Three decades on, the 48-year-old Mr Macindoe is now the member of Parliament for Hamilton West.

He has lived overseas for several years, is married with two children and has been Arts Waikato chief executive and deputy principal of St Peter's School in Cambridge.

And he has only just completed the last of his papers in law.

"One of my mother's friends said, 'Don't go overseas because you'll never finish your degree'," said Mr Macindoe.

"I said I'd only go overseas for a year as typical Kiwis do and come back and pick it up. I didn't think it would take this long though."

Mr Macindoe put his law degree on hold, focusing instead on history, and graduated from Otago University with a bachelor of arts degree in history with honours in 1983.

He went to England in 1986 but returned home a year later and married Anne after a four-month, whirlwind courtship.

"We went back to England on our honeymoon and stayed for five years," he said.

It was not until 2005, following his loss to Martin Gallagher - Mr Macindoe's fourth tilt at Parliament - that he began considering law again, this time at Waikato University.

"It had been nagging away at me and I began to think this political thing might never happen," he said.

"I thought, 'I'll go and have a look at a law degree', partly thinking if I do get into Parliament it would be good training and if I don't it could be my insurance policy."

His degree has already proven useful as a backbencher in the National Government, although being a member of the regulations review committee, "which is probably the driest select committee there is", was not what he originally planned.

Mr Macindoe said he was "hoping" to graduate next Thursday, but with Parliament sitting there were no guarantees he would be granted leave to attend the graduation ceremony.

"Humble backbenchers sort of have to wait in the queue," he said. "I've got the academic dress and paid for the tickets, but it might not happen, after all this time."